Cape Times editorial on the Chapman's Peak toll controversy, January 12 2012:
No, Mr Carlisle
NO, Mr Carlisle, the Cape Times did not get its facts wrong about the plan to build an office block on part of the Table Mountain National Park (see MEC's statement here).
The MEC for transport can huff and puff as much as he likes about "shoddy journalism"; he can even use four letter words on radio to describe the Cape Times article: we stand by our report.
Whatever Carlisle may say about the "Chapman's Peak toll plaza"- that it is not "a great office rearing up the side of the mountain", but a two-storey building "designed not to be intrusive"; that the toll booths and the office building will cost only R13 million; and that all this will be built "into the unsightly quarry on the mountain" - the fact remains that with the connivance of SANParks, the province is handing over a chunk of the Table Mountain National Park to a private company.
So what if the office block is only two-storeys high, if the plaza is "attractive and environmentally appropriate" and if the quarry is "the |ugliest feature on the mountain"?